1. Field of the Invention
This invention is related to remotely operating SPDT AC power semiconductor switches or relays used in home automation operated via wireless remote control or plastic optical fiber and lightguide cables in combination with mechanical SPDT power switches, including current and status sensors.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Remotely operating AC power relays switch on and off electrical appliances such as home heaters, air conditioners, motorized curtains, lighting and other electrical appliances in homes, apartments, offices and buildings. However, verifying the operation status of a remotely operated appliance is complex. Literally all electrical appliances do not report their status and the person operating the remote control device has to verify the on or off status of the operated device by being at the site of the operated appliance for verifying if the lights are on or off, or the aircondition unit is activated or not.
Most of the remote control devices including IR or RF wireless remote control units use the same power key (and code) to switch the appliance on and off, therefore without the operating person's self verification on site, with most of currently available remotely controlled systems it is impossible to positively verify the on-off power status from a remote site. Such prevailing prior art makes it impossible to command without error a group of lights or all lights or a group of appliances or all appliances to switch on or off via a single key, command or process.
One prevailing prior art of home automation uses the relays statuses to update the system controller by tapping the relay's driver circuits status or the last command sent to each of the relays. Such prior art systems mandates the re-design of the whole electrical wiring structure and the customizing of the AC electrical wiring structure for each residence individually. Such undertaking requires expertise to configure, install and maintain, all of which are expensive.
The appliance status reporting on the basis of the relay status does not reliably provide real time current drain statuses, for example, a boiler's relay status will remain on even though no current is drained when the boiler's power is cut by the boiler thermostat. Moreover, the prevailing prior art applies only to fixedly wired electrical lights and appliances. It cannot apply to appliances that are operated by wireless remote control and are randomly connected to AC outlets.
Further, the known AC wiring regulations and building codes forbid the connections, mixing and mingling of AC power wires with low voltage signal wires inside the same electrical box and/or the connecting, the mixing or the mingling of AC power wires with low voltage control wires within the same conduit and/or the same relay in the same wall box and/or with other electrical power devices inside a wall box. Such strict electrical and building codes narrowed the controls of home automation devices to basic three communication signals including wireless (IR and RF) and modulated RF via the AC power lines. This mandates the replacement of AC wiring switches with a whole network of low voltage wiring and the replacement of the switches with key pads, touch screens and other low voltage control devices.
Another significance with remote controlling of home automation systems of current days is the ability to switch electrical appliances on and off remotely via PCs through the Internet, via mobile telephones, iPad and/or via other PDA devices. The problem however for such remote controlling is the need for a verified on-off status of the appliances being operated and/or the availability of a status report covering all the remotely controlled appliances and lights of a given room, house, office, apartment or a building. The power consumption reporting including specific itemized consumption of each individual rooms, house, apartment, office and businesses provide the needed data for remote controlling of the appliances and light without error.
Devices for detecting the on-off status or a standby status and current drain is disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 7,649,727 and 7,864,500, IR devices for communicating such on-off or standby statuses via two way RF or IR remote control system along with IR remote control devices for operating AC power switches and AC operated appliances are disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 7,639,907 and such devices operated through lightguide or fiber optic cable are disclosed in U.S. patent application Ser. Nos. 12/236,656, 12/725,808, 12/761,484, 12/963,876 and 13/086,610 with the content of the referenced US patents and the applications are incorporated herein by reference.
Similarly, such method and apparatuses for integrating remote control devices with video interphone systems and shopping terminals are also disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 7,290,702 and 7,973,647.
For all the disclosed and known power switching and control devices, there is a need to access the devices i.e., establishing the connectivity for feeding control signals and retrieving a switch status and/or the current consumption via the switch or via power outlets. But the electrical safety codes and regulations that forbid connections of a low voltage communication line to an AC power switch and AC power outlets held back the needed power consumption reporting until now. To provide reliable on-off and the propagation of operating command and to receive in return a status report and/or to enable a non restricted connectivity between a low voltage control devices and an AC power switches and outlets, the use of the optical fiber and lightguide was introduced in the above referenced US patents and applications.
Further, the remotely controlled SPDT relay disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 7,649,727 and 7,864,500 and in the referenced applications provide for combining automation relays and current sensors in electrical box adjacent to the mechanical SPDT switch, attached or joint to the SPDT switch itself within the same electrical box. The user's preference is to switch the lights or group of lights by a single key lever of a switch they got accustom to operate, and moreover it is not architecturally pleasing to add different keys for automation and/or additional keys for switching groups of lights or all lights. Similarly the users do not welcome the idea they have to walk all the way to a wall mounted touch screen controller to switch on-off different lights or all lights, while providing touch screen in every room or zone of the residence is a price prohibitive and complex to integrate. The need to use a single or plural old style key levers of a common AC electrical wiring switch for operating a given light, group of lights or all the lights is needed for residences and other premises automation. The reference to “old style” key levers should not be read literally as “old”. The key lever of the “old style” should be read as including attractively and modern designed and styled key levers and wall covers for the AC electrical wiring switches.